Mixed Bag for Farming : County Reports Slight Rise in Crop Values Overall Despite Medfly and Heavy Rains

By J.E. MITCHELL

July 13, 1995 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Despite a potentially devastating fruit fly infestation and heavy, late December rains, the value of Ventura County’s crops increased slightly last year, agriculture officials announced Wednesday.

Countywide, crop values inched up to about $852 million in 1994--about half a percent higher than 1993’s $848 million total, according to an annual crop report released Wednesday.

“It’s a small increase, but we’ll take it,” said David Buettner, Ventura County chief deputy agricultural commissioner.

Farmers across the county were still able to enjoy stable prices and solid levels of production for the majority of 1994, because the county’s big crops--lemons, strawberries and avocados--were not hit by the lashing rains and the effects of the Mediterranean fruit fly infestation until late in the year, when production is at its lowest.

“The impact of these events will show up on next year’s report,” Buettner said. “I suspect that there will be a negative impact, but we really won’t know until we see how market conditions play next year.”

The value of Ventura County crops earned them rankings as the 11th most valuable across the state and 17th most valuable across the nation, Buettner said.

The slight increase in overall crop value occurred despite slight to significant declines in five of nine major agricultural groupings of crops grown in the county.

Vegetable crops, which range from beans to cucumbers, declined 0.5% while field crops such as alfalfa and various varieties of grain and hay, declined by 32% for the year. The biggest single loser of value was in honey and beeswax production, which fell in value by nearly 45%.

“Many of those people in that line of work have either left the business or moved out of the county,” said Kerry Bustamante, deputy Ventura County agricultural commissioner. “There’s no real explanation for it. It’s just a shifting of the market.”

John Lamb, a 39-year-old Santa Rosa Valley avocado and lemon farmer, said 1994 was not an especially memorable year.

“I’d have to say that it was just OK,” said Lamb, whose family has farmed the Hilltop Lane property dating back to the 1860s. “We didn’t make a killing by any means.”

Lamb, who farms about 250 acres, said the 1995 crop report may be a different story.

When the Mediterranean fruit fly was discovered in a Camarillo grove last September, state and federal officials established an 86-square-mile quarantine zone--including Lamb’s ranch.

Lamb said this year he has incurred significant costs in battling the crop-destroying pest, such as large-scale fumigation and biweekly ground-based sprayings of his avocados with the pesticide malathion.

Federal and state agriculture officials said they are hoping to lift the restrictions imposed on farmers and fresh-fruit and vegetable handlers by the Medfly quarantine zone Aug. 1.

The zone severely restricted the movement of the fruit grown there in an effort to slow the spread of the Medfly infestation.

“Next year’s numbers could make for a real disaster,” Lamb said. “It all depends on the production levels and market demands.”

Longtime Ventura County farmer Will Gerry agreed with Lamb that 1994 was not a year for the farming record books.

“It wasn’t anything I’d write home about,” Gerry said. “It was OK in terms of the volume of fruit we grew, but that was about it.”

Even with the small overall increase in crop value countywide, some county crops performed well, officials said. Strawberry farmers saw their crops increase from a total value in 1993 of $110,447 to $129,119 in 1994. Likewise, the value of avocados grew from $49,900 in 1993 to $69,590 last year.

The county’s venerable lemon crop--the mainstay product of Ventura County agriculture--dipped from $216,129 in 1993 to $198,292 in 1994.

Mark Schniepp, director of the UC Santa Barbara Economic Forecast Project, said the modest increase in crop values was positive news, given the relative health of the county and state economy.

“In many other areas of the nation, agriculture is declining,” Schniepp said. “This is a small increase, but it shows that agriculture remains a stable and vital part of the county’s economy. While small, the numbers are still up and that’s a good sign.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Value and . . . Ventura County’s total crop values (in millions of dollars) for 10 years:

1994: $851.9

1993: $848.1

1992: $722.2

1991: $909.9

1990: $852.6

1989: $805.9

1988: $785.8

1987: $669.2

1986: $613.0

1985: $551.9